


partner in crime

by quantumsentience



Series: two can keep a secret [1]
Category: Pretty Little Liars
Genre: F/F, Femslash, Fluff and Humor, Friends to Lovers, One Shot, Undercover Missions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-07
Updated: 2020-06-07
Packaged: 2021-03-03 19:02:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,157
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24590485
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quantumsentience/pseuds/quantumsentience
Summary: Hanna and Spencer go on a mission at the Cavannaugh house to spy on a secret NAT meeting and try and find out more about A, but as they get back to Spencer's house and Hanna sleeps over, tension rises and things slowly start to change between them...The two dorks get closer and closer in this fic, including a liberal use of puns and silly banter.
Relationships: Spencer Hastings/Hanna Marin
Series: two can keep a secret [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1719706
Comments: 3
Kudos: 27





	partner in crime

**Author's Note:**

> This takes place around season 3 when Spencer/Toby and Hanna/Caleb have broken up!

"Do we really have to bring all this crap?" Hanna said as she held up an professional-looking pair of binoculars with a doubtful expression

Spencer continued to carefully put the equipment inside a big, if nondescript, black sports bag, before snatching the binoculars from Hanna's hand.

"A master's worth nothing without his tools " Her tone suggested she thought that much was obvious "And I'll have you know, 'this crap' are state of the art thermosensitive goggles. Besides, how else are we supposed to spy on them?"

In front of them laid various pieces of gear looking straight out of a spy movie, neatly set up on the kitchen table at Spencer's house, ready for their secret nocturnal mission.

Hanna had, of course, dressed the part with her sleek black clothes and cute beanie, in what she was sure was top-notch criminal chic, but she thought her friend was being extra with all her tools and gadgets. Like usual.

Hanna sighed, crossing her arms in front of her "We're just looking through their window, Spence. It's not a freaking spy mission", she said.

Plus, Spencer was taking really long and it was starting to annoy her.

"Not a _spy mission_?" she paused, incredulous "Hanna, we're investigating Alison's murder. This NAT cult is having some secret meeting, and they're probably polling on their next victim, okay? We can't be too careful"

Spencer did have a point. Not only had they absolutely been the ones to murder Alison, but they had also been torturing them for months, all under the stupid A nickname because they didn't have the guts to reveal themselves. Hanna thought it was clear as day. The A was in their name! It was very much a 'Wake up America' moment.

"Is that a spy cam?" Hanna asked, taking a device, as small as a button, from the table "Where did you even get this?"

Spencer seemed a little embarrassed "Amazon. Give it back"

Hanna sat down on Spencer's couch, after hastily giving it back "Whatever. Go ahead, I guess" she said, crossing her arms in front of her 

She knew full well she was being unfair, but it was hard not to be.

The Hastings house was quiet since Spencer's family was away, and the living room was dimly lit. No matter how much Hanna liked Spencer's fancy pants mansion, she never felt comfortable in it. Or safe, for that matter. There was something about the thin-looking glass windows, and the creepy barn in the backyard that never failed to freak her out.

"Are you pouting again?" Spencer said, snapping Hanna out of her thoughts. Usually something like that would've annoyed her, but Spencer's tone was gentle, perhaps even a little apologetic

"Your house gives me the creeps" Hanna felt an actual shiver running down her spine "Like there's someone watching me"

Spencer zipped her bag up in a swift motion, and put it on her shoulder "Well, you're not the one who has to stay here alone"

* * *

" _Ouch_ " Hanna cried, clutching at her cheek " _That stupid branch cut me!_ "

Spencer hushed her, looking over the shrub they were hiding in to make sure no one had heard her. When the coast was clear, she inched closer to her friend, who was crouching on the grass.

"Let me see" she whispered

Hanna was still touching her face with a pained expression and Spencer pried Hanna's hand away to get a good look at the cut. The only light was coming from a streetlamp, and Spencer had to get really close to be able to see.

A surface cut ran diagonally over Hanna's cheekbone, and blood was running down her face.

"Damn it, Hanna! I knew I should've brought my first aid kit instead of those stupidly expensive goggles" Spencer seemed pained "I'm so stupid"

"How bad is it? It's going to leave a scar, isn't it?", Hanna said with a sigh

Spencer wiped the blood off her delicately with her sleeve "Just stay still"

"That's easy for _you_ to say, you won't be known as the girl with the weird scar for the rest of your life!"

Spencer chuckled softly "You won't be known as that, it's just a scratch, Han, I swear. Plus, you're so gorgeous it wouldn't even matter if you did"

That made Hanna pause "You think I'm gorgeous?" she said tentatively, as she looked straight into her friend's eyes

Spencer froze in her tracks, maybe realizing what she had just said. "Of course, silly", she said in a joking tone, but there was a slight, almost imperceptible tremble to her voice that betrayed her discomfort.

A steady blush had spread over Hanna's cheeks after her friend's comment, and she was really hoping the darkness was doing a decent job at hiding it. It was starting to become really hard to ignore the small distance that separated them, and Hanna felt her heart rate speed up exponentially.

Spencer hastily pulled her hood down so that it obscured her face, as she looked away from her friend, who was having a hard time looking straight at her herself, as a thick, awkward silence hung in the air between them.

Hanna discreetly looked at Spencer under the streetlamp light, and noted with a smile that she was dressed a lot like her, with black skinny jeans and a hoodie.

* * *

"Here"

Hanna caught the clothes Spencer threw at her mid-air and inspected them. It was some of Spencer's pajamas, and they were the traditional, fancy two piece kind. Hanna faced the wall as she took her black shirt off, about to replace it with the pj's, when she heard a noise behind her.

As she turned around, she saw her friend's eyes quickly dart towards her before she carefully trained them back on the textbook that sat on her lap.

Hanna raised an eyebrow at Spencer "Like what you see?"

Spencer simply dodged her teasing "Is that new?", she asked with nonchalance

Hanna pulled the pajama shirt over her head and pulled her hair from under it, rearranging it "Yup, just got it at the mall"

"You just got it?" Spencer's eyes narrowed "Are they aware that you're not returning it?

"Spencer! I can't believe how rude you're being right now", Hanna said with outrage

Spencer simply waited, giving Hanna a levelly look over her book, almost daring her to deny it.

"Okay, I _might_ have borrowed it." Hanna admitted, pointing her statement with an eye-roll "And they might not know about it, but what difference does it make?" 

A super cute limited edition bralette arrived at Victoria's Secret nowhere near sale season, with a price tag of nearly a hundred dollars with Hanna's bank account still wiped from last week's shopping spree. Honestly, what was a girl to do? Cerulean blue lace with a velvet trim was just too good to pass up.

"What kind of person _steals underwear_?" Spencer's expression was halfway between bafflement and amusement "I mean, that's got to be some kind of a record"

Hanna had made her way over to Spencer's vanity and was examining her hair. Her roots would need to be redone soon, but overall the baby blue striped pajamas were a pretty good look on her. But then again, blue had always been her color. Even the scrape she'd gotten didn't look all that bad.

"A broke one, hello?" Hanna said, pointing at herself "Nothing you can relate to, of course. But they don't call it a fashion victim for nothing. Also, it's called _lingerie_. Totally different"

That made Spencer laugh, and Hanna could see her friend reflected behind her on the mirror.

She was sitting cross legged with a ginormous book on her lap, and a highlighter on one hand, laughing at Hanna. A quick look at Spencer's textbook showed a color coded array of post-it's that bordered on excessive. Which wasn't surprising. But the look she was giving her was warm, open. It almost made Hanna feel a bit awkward.

Hanna tried to change the subject, "I know you're a huge nerd, but studying on a Friday night is too much. Even for you", she said. Yet something told her it hadn't gone unnoticed by her friend, who made a slight pause.

"Well, if you had a huge AP Latin test over declension and polytheism" Spencer paused to rub her eyes with the back of her hand "You'd be studying too."

Hanna knew Spencer well enough to know she'd probably been up obnoxiously early this morning to do some 'before-school studying' or something equally as ridiculous. And the fact that their mission had also pretty much backfired probably wasn't helping her morale.

Truth was, Hanna was just too pretty to be an undercover agent, anyway. In fact, such a thing was probably illegal.

"Wrong. I would never take a Latin AP class in the first place." Hanna reached over and closed Spencer's book "I'm your guest, and you're ignoring me and it's rude. You can study some other day"

Spencer could always be counted on to be hospitable, and she was glad she could use it to her advantage this time. Spencer sighed as she put the book away on her nightstand "You're kind of right. I might've forgotten my manners for a second"

It was so classic Spencer of her to be overly polite like that. But Hanna knew cracking jokes always made her loosen up.

" _Oh my god_ " She said with emphasis "Spencer Hastings was rude to her best friend for a grand total of 0.5 seconds. Someone call the cops. And The Times, hello? I got a hot story for you"

"Very funny" Spencer said sarcastically, her eyes narrowed, but her smile was genuine as she looked at Hanna

Another awkward silence passed between them. They seemed to be having a lot of those tonight, for some inexplicable reason. It was a rare thing for only the two of them to be hanging out, and none of the other liars were there to break the tension.

"Listen, I know you're bummed about tonight's fiasco, but don't sweat it, okay? We'll figure it out. I know we will. Plus, there's only so much a girl can take before she cracks, and you're cracking"

"Well, I wouldn't say I'm-" Spencer paused "Wait, did you just call our mission a fiasco?"

Hanna gave a dismissive hand gesture "Nevermind that. You need a rest. Or some fun. Or you know what? I think you need a bit of both, right now. I mean, have you _seen_ your eye-bags", she teased her

"Ouch, Hanna" Spencer said, mildly offended "You know it's all for the sake of education. But that doesn't matter, what we really need to do something about is that cut of yours"

"Oh, this?" Hanna pointed at her face "I don't hate it so much anymore, it kind of makes me look tough, you know?"

"I know, but you won't look so tough if it gets infected"

Hanna felt her eyes widening. She was pretty sure even _she_ couldn't possibly pull that off.

"Yeah" Spencer laughed lightly after she saw the look on Hanna's face "Come on"

* * *

"Did you get a med degree while I wasn't looking?"

Hanna looked at the array of supplies Spencer was methodically setting on a hand towel that sat on her bed. She couldn't tell what most the utensils were for, let alone what they were supposed to be called, but Spencer seemed to know her way around perfectly.

Just by looking at it, you might've thought Spencer was about to perform open heart surgery on her with how extreme she was being. Now she was dunking a pair of long tweezers into pure rubbing alcohol in a typical Spencer fashion. Total overkill.

Spencer paused to look at her, "Sure, Han. I managed to get a college level degree in between hockey practice and making honour-roll, and still had time for our weekly sleepovers"

"Knowing you, it wouldn't be crazy at all" Hanna said, rising her brow "Just saying"

"Okay, so if you're done grovelling maybe I can make sure your face won't fall off" Spencer did have a point there

Hanna gave her a hand salute, "Roger that, captain", she said

Spencer's hands were gentle and warm as she held Hanna's chin up to get a good look at her cheek. Hanna didn't really know where to look now that their faces were only inches away, and looking at Spencer in the eye felt way too intimate, so she ended up settling for her bedroom wall. Spencer's open closet doors revealed a neatly, color coordinated, preppy wardrobe. At least she and Spencer had _one_ thing in common. Except for the preppy part, of course. Hanna liked to think her style was more catalogue chic than anything else.

"This will probably sting a little" Spencer's voice got a bit whispery. She was dabbing an alcohol-soaked cotton ball on Hanna's cheek, very lightly. She was being almost comically delicate and cautious, not even holding the cotton ball directly, but clasping it with the tweezers.

"It barely hurts, you know," Hanna heard herself saying "You can chill"

"Oh, right. Sorry" Spencer answered, but didn't really increase the pressure on what she was doing. She was actually pouting as she reached for a band-aid in her first aid kit.

That made Hanna laugh, but her laughter died down as soon as Spencer carefully placed the band-aid over her cheek, and she did so in such a comforting, loving gesture that made her pause. Spencer didn't seem to have noticed anything, but something inside Hanna shifted, and she found herself studying her friend in an entirely different way.

Spencer was carefully arranging her tools back into their pouch, rolling them into the hand towel like Hanna'd seen medics do on TV shows. And then she paused to comb a stray lock of brown hair behind her ear, in such a delicate motion.

Everything Spencer did was so... _Spencer_. From the way she moved to the way she talked, to how her room was so organized, and her book collection carefully alphabetized.

She was the type of person who studied medical stuff and ancient civilizations for fun, and read dead poet's autobiographies on her free time. Growing up, that side of her had always seemed obnoxious to Hanna, but now she was starting to look at her friend in wonder.

Spencer sat back down on the bed next to Hanna, and the latter blurted out her thoughts.

"Why are you friends with me?"

Spencer answered like it was such a natural thing "Why wouldn't I be?"

"Because we have nothing in common. You're all academic and posh, and I'm...Well, I read more magazines than actual books"

"I am _not_ posh" Spencer said pointedly "Besides, I can't make a tennis skirt from a circle one, I bet you can do that with your eyes closed"

"Tennis skirt has pleats" Hanna said automatically

"See what I mean? You're awesome at that stuff. You can coordinate outfits better than anyone I know"

Hanna gave a little shrug, "Of course I can"

Spencer had methodically put her supplies away, and was now tidying up her bed covers and straightening up the highlighters who laid scattered here and there, somewhat absentmindedly. 

"Being different doesn't separate us, it makes us stronger." She said thoughtfully "You've got extensive trend knowledge and I have a history pun collection, you know?"

Spencer paused to sit back down next to Hanna on the bed and, just like that, proceeded to give the most Spencer, dorky finishing statement to ever exist.

"We're both nerds, just different kinds." she gave a little shrug as she said it, leaving Hanna speechless

Hanna was still touched by the way Spencer had so gently healed her wound, and now her words had totally warmed her heart. The girl was so freaking smart and cute...

_And it was getting really annoying._

It's not like the idea of Spencer being attractive had never crossed her mind, but their interactions were usually resumed to mildly irritated banter and silly jokes, so there was hardly room for anything...more. Not that Hanna would've minded.

Hanna got lost in those stupid, chocolatey, bambi eyes of hers. Worst of all, now Hanna found herself staring at Spencer's lips, which were glossy and slightly parted. She'd never noticed how delicate her friend's cupid's bow was, almost romantic-looking somehow, and then there was that cute mole below her eye...

Damn, Spencer really wasn't making _not_ kissing her any easier

But Hanna didn't have to worry about that for much longer, because suddenly, it was Spencer who grabbed her and brought her close for a kiss. And it was _some_ kiss. It was both soft and frantic, both scary and exciting. With the way Hanna was feeling right now, she knew she shouldn't be trusted to form any semblance of coherent words anytime soon. 

Spencer drew back, startling Hanna "Sorry I kissed you", she blurted out, her eyes wide

_Sorry? Oh honey, you have no idea..._

"Don't be" Hanna said, which made Spencer stare at her in confusion. Hanna could clearly see the gears turning in that pretty head of hers, as she slowly took in her words and their meaning. 

Spencer still seemed unsure, "Does that mean you're not mad that I astronomically messed things up today? I mean, I know I'm supposed to be the reliable one and everything, and I _really_ try. Really. But sometimes it's hard, and it's still a lot of pressure people put on me, you know? 

Hanna gave her a smile "That's just one of the things I love about you", she simply said

"Yes, but you have to understand that I'm only human, and even if I seem like I know everything and am smart, whatever that's supposed to mean, since it's all pretty much subjective at this point. I mean what _is_ intelligence really, if you think about it..." Spencer paused for a second, looking confused "Wait, what did you just say?"

**"We're partners, Spence"** Hanna combed her friend's hair behind her ear. She'd always secretly wanted to do that. Not that she'd ever admit it or anything. **"Partners in crime."**

Spencer seemed pretty dumbstruck by her admission, and it was all beyond cute. That and the fact that she'd turned into a rambling mess the second she broke the kiss, speaking a hundred miles an hour in that nerdy way of hers. Just who gave her the right to be this damn cute?

"Now of a different kind, apparently" Spencer started with a chuckle, before interrupting herself in sheer panic "Wait, I didn't necessarily mean it like that. I wouldn't want to assume anything that-"

"Oh, _shut up_ , silly" Hanna kissed her and felt Spencer's lips curl up into a smile as their kiss deepened, as she wrapped her arms around her partner's neck, bringing her closer.

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: Thanks for reading!
> 
> This was really fun to write! I tried to recreate the breezy, teasing atmosphere between the two, and the result was this. First in the Two Can Keep A Secret series, next one will be a Sparia story so stay tuned for that. I also want to pair Mona/Hanna, Emily/Alison or Emily/Hanna. 


End file.
